The Campaign

Charity Greeting Card Project – a project allowing students to create their own Nengajyo (New Year Greeting Cards) and then we sell it online. Revenues are donated to the school where the creator belongs.

Creative Execution

We asked students from Tohoku, a place suffered from the earthquake, to design Nengajyos using the theme "Hope towards Tohoku's future". Designs were created using simple shapes such as circles, triangles and rectangles, just like playing with bricks. We wanted to bring out students' creativity without spending too much time. Eventually we came up with 50 designs which were later being sold online as Nengajyos.

Results

A donation of US$12,000 was raised. The event was widely reported in different media with over 200 exposures, equivalent to a media budget of around US$200,000. It was a great success in making an impact in communicating with the mass about the latest updates of Tohoku, which helps accelerating the recovery projects. The children did not only raise the recovery fund by themselves, but also drew attention from the general public that they still need assistance from the Japanese society.

It is expected that the damages from the Great East Japan Earthquake would take a number of years to recover – and only five years has passed. The situation did not get much better and continuous support to the recovery projects is needed. This project helps children to participate in the recovery using the power of themselves instead of assistance from adults. The idea is widely reported in various media, which contributed to the recovery by drawing public's attention and raising fund.

Sending Nengajyos is a traditional practice in Japan to greet their relatives and friends and share recent lives during the New Year. Using this opportunity, we'd like to draw people's attention towards the recovery projects. We asked students suffered from the earthquake to design the Nengajyos.